Motivation for Entrepreneurs: Starting and Scaling a Business
Nowadays, more and more people are starting their own businesses. For some, this is because they simply want to do something different than what they're currently doing, for others it's because they see a better opportunity to make money with a service or product that no one else is providing. What I want to talk about today are the specific steps an entrepreneur should take in order to start and scale their business. This post will cover all of these topics from startup funding through building an effective marketing strategy and even how much it actually costs when you start a business at different phases of development.
This is one of the most important steps an entrepreneur should have in their business model. When you have chosen a good product or service, you should first evaluate your target market. As we all know, there are billions of people in the world today and more and more of them are buying stuff every day. So which ones should you choose to work with?
It's always good to find out how many potential customers are actually interested in what you're offering so that you can make an accurate estimate of how much money your product will make. There is a lot of information available out there so finding it won't be a problem.
Based on your target market, you should make an estimate of what the demand for your product will be, how many customers your business can get within a certain period of time and how much it is likely to cost you to reach those clients and build up that kind of demand. Also, keep in mind that you might need more money than expected to reach a larger market as well as to cover costs if you plan to use other people's services or products in order to make your business run smooth.
What I want to say here is that you shouldn't rely on just one way to get your business running. It's always good to have an idea of how much money you will need and what you will do once that money is gone. You can always get more, but when it's gone, the worst case scenario is that your business shuts down.
Chances are that you already have some kind of idea in mind about how your business should be structured, but if not here are a few tips when it comes to thinking about starting a business model. There are two popular types of businesses: sole proprietorship and corporation. If you are a new entrepreneur, it's probably best if you start out with a sole proprietorship. In this type of structure, all of the business' profits are yours and all its debts are yours. If something goes wrong in your business, you are the only one who is responsible for it.
On the other hand, if you register as a corporation and incorporate your business there will be another person or persons involved in the decision making process and taking responsibility for your actions. So depending on how much money you think will be made from your product or service, it might be wise to first try being a sole proprietor before going into corporate structure.
There are a lot of different kinds of business structures like hybrid ones and how many people can be involved in the decision making process. You should think about all of these before deciding what kind of business structure you want to go with. Again, start with a sole proprietorship first and then it's time to think about registering as a corporation.
The layman's way of thinking is that being incorporated will allow you to get tax breaks (as long as they're not abusing them), but this is not always true.
Whatever structure an entrepreneur chooses to go with will determine how much money they will need and how much the investors want for their money. Some types of structures will require smaller investments, while others are more expensive and will require a lot of capital up front.
If you are building a product based business or one that doesn't need to be set up with brick and mortar (i.e. an e-store), then you won't need as much money as if your business will require rent for a physical location.
So, when it comes to startup funding, the amount varies depending on the type of business that you're building. Keep in mind that there are free resources out there in order to get your businesses moving as well as paid ones.
Going back to our previous statements about how much money your business will need to get running, keep in mind that you will also have to spend some money on marketing if you want people to actually see your product or service so that they can buy it.
Marketing is one of the most important things for a business owner and entrepreneur to think about. In the past, companies could afford long-term marketing strategies like having their products placed in tv shows or even having commercials being aired on major networks like National TV or Fox. This kind of strategy is still used today, but it not nearly as effective as it used to be.
Nowadays, most people are bombarded with marketing messages from social media, websites and other forms of online media. It is impossible to keep track of all the ads and products that you may be seeing on a daily basis. In order to get ahead in this race, entrepreneurs need to be creative with their marketing strategies in order to win people's votes. Most importantly you should know who your target audience is and try to reach them through traditional methods as well as new ones like online video marketing.
For example, you can make videos about how much value your product or service has and upload it on Youtube where it might get thousands or even millions of views depending on what you're offering. Even if only one percent of those people who watch your video will be interested in what you're selling, that's still a sizable number of potential customers for you.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the better your product or service is and the more it deserves to be sold, the higher chance there is for it to make money. I'm not saying that if you make a crappy product and sell it like hotcakes, that it will bring in millions of dollars. What I mean is that if your product or service is only decent, then don't expect too much out of it.
Conclusion
There are a lot of variables involved when starting a business. The success or failure of your business will depend on how much time, effort and money you put in to it. I hope I could help you by giving you a few tips on how to save or earn money for your startup business. Good luck!
The most important tip that I can give is not to quit your day jobs until it has been proven that there is enough money coming in so that you will be able to sustain yourself and your family's living expenses. If worse comes to worst, then try selling some of the stuff that you don't need anymore (this includes dreams) in order to keep the lights on.